The Portrait
by SLWalker
Summary: This is a Subrealityesque fic, more of a tribute to good characters than any particular story.


**_The Portrait_**  
by: Stephanie L. Watson (SLWatson)  
  
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Notes: I'm not exactly sure if this is Subreality, or where it is, just that it was an inspired moment and Subreality, in any part, is the only place I can think to put it. If it doesn't fit, feel free to kick me, repeatedly.  
  
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It's wonderful to see them again.  
  
See the one over there on the corner? The blond guy waving? That's Mike Nelson, muse extraordinaire. His job is to inspire, but he slacks off a lot, and sometimes the Writer has to come up with ideas alone. But that's okay, y'know? It's okay.  
  
The guy next to him is his partner in crime, Joel Robinson. Inventor, tinkerer, smart guy all around. Don't mind that sleepy look, he always has that; it's a part of his charm.  
  
Those cute little robots hanging around and quibbling are Joel's inventions, Tom Servo and Crow T. Robot. Can you believe that they're fourteen? Don't let the witty sarcasm fool you -- they're growing up, but they're still young. Yep, still have years. Absolutely.  
  
Yeah...  
  
Oh, you noticed him too? That wild-haired guy with the white strip in his hair and the green lab coat? That's Dr. Clayton Forrester. He actually imprisoned the whole above mentioned to watch bad movies on a satellite. He's an evil mad scientist, but not really so much evil as campy... still, Mike, Joel and the 'bots forgave him years ago, and Dr. F might still be a mad scientist, but he's a ShadowKnight just the same.  
  
Oh, yeah, her too. The woman there with her head on his shoulder, the one with the green hair? That's Lorna Dane, otherwise known as Polaris or the Mistress of Magnetism. Everyone wondered why such a gorgeous woman would go for someone like Dr. F, but in the end, they concluded that it must have been because they were both insane and green-obsessed. Almost three years together and still not hitched, but they're in no hurry.  
  
Plenty of time.  
  
Yeah.  
  
The brown-haired girl sitting on the black Trans-Am is named Kitty Pryde. And the Trans-Am is named KITT. They've been working partners since the mid-nineties, the two founding members of ShadowKnight. Kitty's dating Mike, another one of those long romances; it's a cute, midwestern kind of thing. And KITT's complaining about being forced to sit in the thick summer mud.  
  
The older woman on KITT's other side is Bonnie Barstow, his creator. She and Joel have a lot in common, what with independently creating AI beings, and rumor control has it that there's something going on between the two. But no one knows for sure. She came over from the long-disbanded FFLAG to ShadowKnight.  
  
So did Devon Miles. Yeah, that's him, the distinguished looking chap who would look more appropriate sipping tea in an English manor, rather than hanging out with this bunch of folks. But he likes it here; shared an office with Charles Xavier for the longest time, with Xavier's name on a brass plaque and Devon's on a piece of notebook paper taped to the door.  
  
It was amazing how a piece of Mead notebook paper started all of this, so long ago, and how it finds these people standing in the summer sun together.  
  
There are so many more... so many more that could be here, but for now, this is enough.  
  
It's wonderful to see them again.  
  
I watch them; their universe and mine are separate. They go on while I write other universes, they play and fight and love and hope while I go to work. And sometimes, they visit me in my dreams.  
  
I watch them; they taught me so much, you know. About writing, about hoping, but best of all, about myself.  
  
I watch them; I miss them most on summer afternoons, remembering the glorious days when the lines between our universes faded... when I was able to be an everyday part of theirs and still have the reality of mine.  
  
I watch them, and thank them for the gifts they have given and continue to give to me.  
  
I watch them.  
  
It's wonderful to see them again.  
  
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Disclaimers: Mike, Joel, Clay and the 'bots all belong the Best Brains, Inc. Lorna and Kitty both belong to Marvel Comics, and Bonnie, Devon and KITT go to Glen A. Larson.  
  
Subreality, naturally, is Kielle's. Thanks for the playground!  
  
The ShadowKnights and the IP&S universe don't belong soley to me; they also belong to my sister, KRWalker, and Richard, MysticGOE. To them, to our characters and to the neverending summer, this story is dedicated.  
  
  



End file.
